Zero setting means for plural counters



Feb. l1, 1941. A. HEMMINGsoN 2,231,288

ZERO SETTING MEANS FOR PLURAL COUNTERS original Filed oct 27, 1957 Patented Feb. 11, 1941 UNITED STATES ZERO SETTING MEANS FOR PLURAL COUNTEBS Alfred Hemmingson,

to Waltham Watch Cambridge, Mass., assigner Company, Waltham, Mass.,

a` corporation of Massachusetts Original application 171,269. Divided and 20, 1939, Serial No. 252

1 Claim.

This invention relates to counters, including such as have a. plurality of counting units, each adapted to be selectively coupled with a driving means for operation independently of the others by one and the same machine. Such counters are used in various situations where a single machine is run under the supervision of two or more operators in rotation and it is desired to register the work of each operator separately over a more or less extended period of time. A counter embodying this invention has been chosen for illustration here which is designed for application to a loom and to add progressively and separately the number of picks of filling woven into the cloth by the loom under control of weavers working in three shifts, from week to week.

The present application is a division of my prior application Serial No. 171,269, filed October 27, 1937, entitled Plural counter, and the phase of the invention herein particularly described and claimed has for its object to provide means whereby all of the counting units may be set to the zero indicating position simultaneously or, alternatively, any one of the units may be set at zero without affecting any of the others.

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a plural counter embodying this invention adapted to be set in an upright position in use; the cover of the instrument being broken away sufficiently to show one of the counting units and the selective driving means for all of the units;

Fig. 2 is a cross section taken on a plane designated by the lines 2 2 in Figs. 1 and 4;

Figs. 3 and 4 are detail cross sections of one of the counter units taken on lines 3 3 and 4 4 respectively of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrows applied to said lines;

Fig. 5 is a section taken on line 5 5 of Fig. l showing the means by which the counting units may be connected for zero setting in unison or disconnected for individual setting.

Like reference characters designate the same parts wherever they occur in all the Ilgures.

-For convenience of description the instrument here shown may be referred to as a three shift pick counter, since it is adapted to count the operations of a loom under the control of three dilerent operators separately. But this designation isnot intended, and should not be assumed, to carry any implication of limitations in the scope and utility of the invention. In this embodiment the working parts are contained in a metal box made as a die casting having an integrally united back wall II and side walls I2, I3.

October 27, 1937, Serial No.

this application January ,006

I4 and I5, and a detachable cover I6 secured in any suitable manner to the side walls. Three counting units are mounted in parallel in the casing. They are all alike and a description of the lowermost one, which is shown in detail in this drawing, will suflice for all.

A series of disks I1, I8, I9, 20, commonly called number wheels, are mounted side by side rotatably on a shaft 2I which in turn is mounted rotatably in bushings 22 and 23 set into the opposite side walls I2 and I4 of the casing. These wheels are of standard character, each having numbers from one to nine and zero on its outer circumference. The right hand wheel, or wheel of lowest order, is rigidly connected to a sleeve 24, and carries on its lefthand side a notched disk 25 and a mutilated gear 26 by which intermittent motion is transmitted to thenext wheel through a carrying pinion 21 rotatably mounted on a parallel shaft 28. The pinion 21 meshes with a complete gear 28a secured to a bushing 29 on which the number wheel I8 is rotatable, which gear carries a pawl 30 occupying a recess in the number wheel and adapted to enter any one of ten notches 3| in the surrounding rim of the number wheel. Such pawl and notches constitute a one way clutch by which forward counting movement is imparted to the wheel I8, and which permits said wheel to be independently advanced in the same direction for resetting. Like carrying mechanisms are provided between the wheels I8 and I9 and between the wheels I9 and 20.

A gear 32, rotatable on shaft 2l, meshes with a worm 33 on a shaft 34 which rotates in bearings in the end walls I3 and I5 of the casing. A disconnectible clutch is provided between the sleeve 24 and gear 32, consisting of a sleeve 35 having a notched flange 36 at the end next to the gear, and carrying, in rigid connection with its opposite end portion, a disk 31 having lugs 33 extending through notches in a disk 39 secured nonrotatably to the sleeve 24. 'I'he interconnected disks 31 and 39 provide a splined connection between the clutch sleeve 35 and the lowest order number wheel I1. A spring 40 between the sleeve 24 and clutch sleeve 35 presses the latter toward the gear 32 and causes the ange 36 to bear on the lace of said gear whenever permitted by a clutch shifter 4I. Pins 42 are mounted in the side of gear 32 and are spaced so as to enter the notches in ilange 36 when the latter is thus brought up to the gear.

The common drive shaft 34 has two other worms like the worm 33, which are designated 33a and 33h and are suitably spaced to mesh with the driving gears 32a and lfb (corresponding to the gear 32) of the other two counting units. This shaft is driven from the machine with which the counter is associated by an external shaft 43 and a gear train 44, 45, 46, shown in Fig. 1. The clutch shifter 4| previously mentioned is a rod mounted rotatably in the end walls of the casing parallel to the drive shaft, in front of the clutch sleeves 35 and close beside the coupling disks 31 thereof. The rod is cut away in different sides adjacent to the coupling disks 31 of the several units, and each cut away part or notch is of suillcient length to admit the disk when turned toward the latter, and of sufficient depth to permit movement of the disk and clutch sleeve from the position where the flange 36 on such sleeve is clear of the clutch pins 42, to the position where the notches in said ange receive the pins. It is to be understood that the shifter rod is suitably located so that when turned in the manner to bring its unnotched side or surface against the disk 31, the clutch is shifted to, and held in, its disconnected position. The shifter rod is made with so large a diameter that, when thus cut away to the required depth, it still possesses adequate strength and stiffness. The three notches or flats provided in the illustrated embodiment of the shifter, which are distinctively designated in Fig. 1 as 41, 48 and 49, are spaced angularly around the axis of the rod 90 apart from one another, which permits placement of the shifter in four positions of angular rotation, in three of which a selected one only of the three counting units is connected to its driving gear, and in the fourth of which all the units are disconnected. It is thus rotated, and locked in each of the designated positions, by an external knob 50 which is splined to the rod by a set screw 5i occupying a groove 52 in the side of the rod, and has a lug on its end adapted to enter any one of four equiangularly spaced notches 54 on the outside of the casing wall i3. A spring 55 reacting between the rod and knob permits the latter to be disengaged from the notches and causes its lug to snap into any notch with which it is brought into register.

In the particular embodiment of the present invention illustrated in the accompanying drawing, to reset the number wheels at zero the shaft 2| is rotated in the same direction that the number wheels are rotated for counting. The shaft of each counting unit has a flattened, or otherwise non-circular extremity 21a located in the bushing 23, to which may be applied the socket portion of a resetting handle. In the side of the shaft may be a longitudinal groove forming a shoulder 56 extending throughout so much of the length of the shaft as is surrounded by the number wheels I8, i9 and 20 or there may be separate notches and shoulders in the same planes with the disks 25 of these several wheels. Each of the disks 2'5 carries a pawl 51 pivotally seated in a recess in the disk and pressed on by a spring 58 toward the shaft so that it drops in front of the shoulder 56 whenever advanced beyond the shoulder, and also whenever, being beyond the shoulder, the latter is brought up to it. Hence when the shaft is turned forwardly by an applied handle, it picks up the advanced number wheels and brings their corresponding numbers into lateral alinement.

Counters of this character are commonly used to register the work of two or three shifts of operators throughout an entire week, or other convenient working period. At the end of the period the sums indicated by the several counting units are noted to the credit of the respective operators and the counters set to zero. In order to save time and effort by the supervisor or time keeper who performs this task, it is desirable that all of the units be reset by a single manipulation. instead of two or three successive actions. But it is also desirable at times to be able to set any one of the units to zero without disturbing the others. This may be necessary when one operator is transferred from one machine to another in the middle of the week, while the operators in the other'` shifts remain. To meet this situation I have proyided the counter with means by which the counting umts may be coupled together for resetting in unison or disconnected for individual resetting.

The resetting shaft 2| of one of the counting units, preferably the middle one in the case of a three shift counter, may carry a fixed gear I4 and the shafts of the other two units may rotatably support similar gears 54a and 54h respectively. These gears are connected in train by intermediate gears a and 45h mounted on studs which project from the casing wall I4. Sliding clutch members lia and .6b are splined to the shafts of the two outer counting units beside the gears 84a and 84h respectively so as to be movable axially toward and away from these gears, and are formed with notches or holes adapted to receive pins l1 which project axially from the adjacent sides of such gears.

These clutch members may have associated therewith clutch shifters lia and lib which, as is shown in Fig. 5, may comprise forked arms mounted on a pivot pin I! which projects from the back wall of the case, and the branches of such forked arms may lie in circumferential grooves of the clutch members on opposite sides of the axes thereof. Ihe clutch shifters may also have short arms "a and b which may project transversely to the clutch Shifters beside one another. A cam Il, secured to a short shaft I1 journaled in the cover, may be located between said short arms, and the latter may be yieldingly held and forced against the cam by a spring Il connected to their extremities. The cam is symmetrical on opposite sides of its axis and has a throw or rise in each lobe sufficient to disconnect the clutches when turned to the position shown in Fig, 1, and to permit connection of the clutches by the spring when turned so that its low parts are beside the arms 90a and 0b. When the clutches a and lib are disconnected any one of the counting units can be reset independently of the others, and when these clutches are connected the resetting of any unit causes both the others to be reset simultaneously.

The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof, and it is therefore desired that the present embodiment be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, reference being had to the appended claim rather than to the foregoing description to indicate the scope of the invention.

What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A counter comprising two or more counting units each having a rotatable shaft, number indicators rotatably supported on each of ,said shafts, means for rotating any one of said shafts separately to turn the indicators thereon, gears mounted on the respective shafts, one of said gears being fixed and the others rotatable om arm projecting laterally therefrom, a rotatably mounted cam adapted to engage said arms, and means for maintaining said arms in engagement with said cam whereby said clutch is shifted by movement of said cam.

ALFRED GSON. 

